He Pope Leo XIV He denounced the “use of food as a weapon of war” and the shortage in places like Gaza or Ukraine, during his speech at the World Food Day events at the headquarters of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) this Thursday.
“The current conflict scenarios have re-emerged the use of food as a weapon of war, contradicting all the awareness-raising work carried out by the FAO during these eight decades,” he lamented during the forum’s opening speech.
The American pontiff traveled this Thursday morning from the Vatican to the Roman headquarters of the FAO to participate in the events for World Food Day in which other authorities such as Queen Letizia of Spain and the president of Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi, were present, a report from EFE.
At a time when science has lengthened life expectancy, technology has brought continents closer together and knowledge has opened previously unimaginable horizons, allowing millions of human beings to live – and die – struck by hunger is a collective failure, a…
— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex_es) October 16, 2025
In his speech, delivered in Spanish and English, Leo
“International humanitarian law prohibits without exception attacking civilians and goods essential for the survival of populations,” he recalled.
In this sense, he stressed that the UN Security Council has already unanimously condemned this practice, the subjection of populations at war to hunger, “recognizing the connection between armed conflicts and food insecurity.”
Specifically, he denounced in this international forum the existence of “multitudes” that lack access to drinking water, food or decent medical care or education in Ukraine, Gaza, Haiti, Afghanistan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Yemen or South Sudan.
But this, he maintained, “seems forgotten, because, with pain, we witness the continuous use of this cruel strategy, which condemns men, women and children to hunger, denying them the most basic right: the right to life,” he denounced.
The pontiff said that “at a time when science has lengthened life expectancy, technology has brought continents closer together and knowledge has opened previously unimaginable horizons, allowing millions of human beings to live – and die – struck by hunger is a collective failure, an ethical error, a historical fault.”
